England not out to 'capture' Arundell, says Jones

The name of Henry Arundell has been doing the rounds in the UK, especially after the 19 year-old was named in Eddie Jones’ 36-man England squad after some telling performances for London Irish.  

Interestingly, Arundell qualifies to play for England, Wales and Scotland, and his recent form has prompted something of a race to secure his future services. However, Jones is adamant that the selection of Arundell is not merely to capture him in that way, stating that the youngster will have to work hard to earn an England cap. 

“That is not something we do,” Jones said, he recently drew a parallel between Arundell and Wallaby great, Matt Giteau. 

“The reason I have compared Arundell [with Giteau] is a similar story,” he said. “You get reports through on young players, and where there is smoke there is usually some fire. I remember getting a sevens report on Giteau, what he could do, and then you go and watch him play. 

“Within five minutes you can generally work out whether he’s got it or not, whether he’s got something special. I gave you that example of Arundell. And Giteau was the same, I went to watch him play half-back for his club, and within five minutes you could tell he had something about him. 

“Then the hard part comes, when they’ve got to work really hard, they’ve got to not believe what’s being said about them, that they’re not Kid Wonder, that they’ve got to apply themselves to the task and that’s when the real player comes through.” 

Jones elaborated on his observations of the youngster. 

“I was particularly impressed when I went to see him play against Wasps,” he said. “The ball was kicked to him and he knocked it on cold, so it wasn't great start. There's all this hooha about him being a fantastic player and he knocks the ball on cold. 

“Next ball he gets a long pass, sees back space, chips and scores and that's the sort of mindset you want to see from young players who want to take on the game. So that's impressive with his pace obviously. 

“There could be something good about him but we don’t know what his desire is, we don’t know what his work ethic is like, we don’t know what his mental resilience is like. 

There are plenty of good young players who come through all the time and some of them have got something a little bit special. The test of a young payer to become a good Test player is their ability to work hard, their ability to take knocks, their ability to keep resilient physically and mentally and to have that mindset to keep improving. 

“From what I know of him and I have met him once very briefly, he has got good attributes. But we will only see that on the three days of training we have. 

“We just have to wait and see what he’s like. Is he capable of handling the pressure? We don’t know. We’ll try to find out.”